green

Holy smokes! That's a terrifying story, Neenagh.

Yep, just a very lazy one.... When you can lie down on the job and still make money you know you've got a good job!:kiss2:

Green loves smut! *Teehee*

:biggrin1: Aww, it all depends on one's attitude. These days my big trips are on the subway but I find them interesting. I am sure that your life is very interesting. I know nothing about hospitals and so I find 'em fascinating!

I am wrong. The above was a simple-minded statement...an idiotic statement in fact.:embarassed:

The Jihadists merely want us, the infidels, out of their homelands which would be the Muslim countries. That is their mandate.

Yoda, it sounds as though you have had some pretty neat adventures. We should swap a stories.

Maybe Mr. Mandi's weight is now muscle? Muscle is good. And Mr. Yoda is doing well. Afterall, he doesn't have The Gadget!

It's the Fall and we haven't been getting much sunlight this year. This encourages a desire to eat and hibernate, I think. These are the feelings that I have been fighting. It is hard to feel energetic and optimistic when it is gloomy outside. Fight those feelings, girl!!!!

Terrorist targets in North America are likely to be major cities with international profiles such as New York, Washington, Los Angeles in the United States and Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto in Canada. They are most likely to aim for international airports, mass transit systems, stock exchanges, and water supplies. This is the way terrorism has worked in Europe and worked on 9/11. If you do not live in one of these centres and do not fly internationally the chances are superb that you will never, ever be personally affected by a jihadist. Even for those of us who do live in these "hot spots" the chances are excellent that we will succumb to natural causes. The philosophy behind terrorist activities is to create feelings of terror in the local populace. This intent has been successful in the case of gailannr.

I like petites or capris or flood pants and I am 5'6". I might have a long torso and this might be a good thing according to my late Mum. It seems that as you age your spine shrinks. I guess this means that if you have long legs and a short torso when you are young, you may be shit outta luck when you are an old fart! Oooh, lemme see, this could translate to an individual who has 3.5 feet long legs, a 2 foot long trunk, and then a head.............. Maybe a head. Canadians have heads, don't we?

Aw, kiddy, I am so not laughing! I have had the same feelings my very own self. Being on the road and in a strange city ain't that easy. Toronto only seems simple to me because it's my crib. I've done a lot of travelling overseas in places where I have wished that I didn't need to eat or have a bladder. Life can get scary when you are away from home. Trust me, the Green girl knows. :eek: (She's been around if ya know what I mean.....)

Those of you who are attempting to draw parrallels between America's tardy engagement in the second world war and the current mess in the middle east should take time to brush up on the two situations. The United States entered both the first and second world wars after these conflicts had become well established. Their northern neighbours, Canada and Newfoundland (Newfoundland had not opted to become part of Canada until 1949), had been engaged in these conflicts from the the get go. Australia and New Zealand were also on board during these dreadful conflicts. Their (Australia and New Zealand) troops became known under the portmanteau word of Anzac troops. These are countries who had participated in two world wars and who had seen many of their men slaughtered as a result. These were young countries and I sometimes wonder about the effect that these wars had on their national psyches. Though it is not to be expected that this history should mean anything much to you Americans it is, nevertheless, powerful history for the Commonwealth countries. (I should mention that I was on Gallipoli with a handful of Anzacs a little over a year ago. It was a big deal for my fellow travellers.) All Americans should be both touched and interested to learn that a number of Americans, many of them from the wealthiest and most privileged houses, chose to become engaged in both the first and second world wars long before the United States formally opted to formally participate as a nation. Though it is true that the Americans saved the arses of the Brits and the Western European countries from the Jew-hating, racist, world-thirsty Hun, and his gang of associated power-hungry sociopaths - a good thing for the free world! - let us also admit that America dragged its heels and entered into the war in a tardy fashion. It is thanks to FDR, a Democrat, that the United States did enter into that war. (I could even stretch a point and say that that it is thanks to FDR that I exist and am doing well in my obnoxious way.) Engagements in the first and second world war have nothing to do with this current mess in Iraq and those individuals who are trying to draw some kind of parrallel are either woefully misinformed or believe that the rest of us are stupid enough to fall for this argument. In the case of the first and second world wars there was a country, Germany, that had attempted to gobble up its neighbours and, in so doing, disturb global peace and harmony. Iraq had been minding its own business at the time that it was invaded by the Bushikins. And certainly we God-lovin' Christians who live in America are unlikely to be denied access to church, microwave oven, or TV because Iraq has got the blues.

Hah! Ya never would thought that the boomers would be spending their lives on their knees, eh? Hahahaha. (Green is not religious and as for the other thing...well....she is very lazy and prefers to work on her back!:heh: ) Philippe's blue cheese vinaigrette: dijon mustard, olive oil, blue cheese, and vinegar. Crushed garlic is optional but good. Mash the above, leaving out the vinegar, in a bowl until these elements look like a paste. Sniff. Sniffing is good, you know. Add the vinegar until this paste is fluid. (I love the taste of vinegar and I use apple cider vinegar. The acidity of this can be toned down by using a few drops of Balsamic vinegar.) Of course cold pressed extra virgin olive oil is the best and you do need to add enough vinegar so that the salad dressing flows. This is a really strong salad dressing and so works well for salads that are carb rich. It is a great dressing for salads with potatoes or for chick peas. (I suspect, no! I am sure that I have gained some of my weight through hoovering down carbs and a blue cheese vinaigrette!:eek: )

Actually, although my personal experience as another lucky Canucki has been quite different from that of Tommy O, my advice is the same. You must consult an accountant. My Mum died a year and a half ago. She left a considerable estate and the bulk of this will go to my brother and myself. I also own property but I have been off work and have been receiving a small disability benefit at this time. I am now in the weird position of being worth - on paper - a hefty chunk of money indeed and yet I am receiving government rebates because my income is such that I "look" poor. To add to the irony of the situation, my company has just offered my a nice chunk of change and an enriched pension in order to accept early retirement. I went for it and will be officially retired as of the first of December. Certainly none of this was done deliberately and none of my rebate cheques amount to big bucks. Indeed I was able to survive on my measly long term disability pension cash because I had been able to put away money for a rainy day and because I have a wonderful husband who is working, and because my mortgage is paid off, I have no children, and I have rental income. Lucky me. Let us now look at my colleagues, younger families, ones with mortgages, kids, and a couple of vehicles. I had a good job. My monthly take home disability pension pay is what I would have taken home, had I worked a bit of overtime, in one week. And then, in a gruesome way, I guess you could say that I got lucky; I lost my Mum but fell into a state of financial "freedom." This is my story and doesn't apply to all those other hard working folks with their families who are out there. Green is very aware that she is a lucky girl in many ways. It is important to pay attention to our fellow families. It is important to understand how strong the safeguards that pin them up are. This is a community issue, I think.

Oh yeah, the wars on.... I believe that I have mentioned in at least one previous post my mistrust of sloganeering. I was kinda lucky. My father who had come from a hated minority (he was Jewish) and was a survivor of war-torn Europe taught me when I was very young to distrust all political slogans, whether they originate from the left, right or the middle of the political spectrum. It seems that many Americans are satisfied when their government announces that they are launching a war on something or other. What does this actually mean, however? If, for instance, the war on drugs means that those individuals who use marijuana, a widely used soft drug and one that is no more malign in its effects than alcohol, are clogging up the legal system, diverting manpower who would be better served elsewhere, and that pursuing these individuals is proving to be expensive for the taxpayer, well then, ya kinda got to wonder where the sense is in this war. And what about this war on poverty? How do you propose to win the war on poverty? It strikes me that this issue of poverty is exceedingly complex. There are those who fall into the category of the deserving poor and these are individuals who were doing okay but who stumbled into a pit of bad luck. In this category are women who have married the wrong men and who are now single mothers. There are also families whose primary breadwinners have seen their jobs outsourced to developing countries. And there are families where a member, possibly the breadwinner, has fallen ill, either to a physical or a mental disease. But there are many of you who choose not to recognise that this category of poor might exist. You don't want to be taxed. You figure that the poor are not your problem. (If God actually liked these guys they wouldn't have become poor in the first place.) Oh yah, and then there are the bums, the people who are lazy, shiftless and no-good, and who have been living off the rest of us for generations now. How should we proceed in our treatment of the poor? (It might be logical to convert these bums into pet food but I don't think that this will be allowed.) And what about the war on terrorism? The invasion of Afghanistan made a certain amount of sense. Afghanistan was sheltering a number of cells of al Qaeda and refused to give these up. It should be noted that our friend, Pakistan, has regions that are rife with the Taliban, al Qaeda, and their supporters. It would have made more sense to attack these regions of Pakistan than to have invaded Iraq.

What is sauce for the goose is not necessarily sauce for the gander when it comes to us human beings. You are doing the right thing by giving your marriage a second shot and maybe this will work out. It has for many of us. It is, however, important for you to understand that this may not necessarily work out for you and if it doesn't you should in no way feel that you are at fault or that you have failed. I would not like to see you beating yourself up. I think that you are very brave and that you are doing a fine thing for your family by choosing to give your marriage a second chance. I think that you need to rest and I am pleased that you are now on antidepressants. I myself am on antidepressants by the way. It has been my experience that depression can seriously damage one's ability to function, even to sleep, and to view one's situation with clarity and a degree of emotional detachment. In brief, the antidepressants will help you get the break from this situation that you need. The medication will assist you to quit your own internal physical and psychological downward spin. Counselling, joint and individual, will also help both you and your husband figure things out. Perhaps you will decide that your relationship is valuable and worth saving, perhaps it will assist you to see that the relationship is unsalvageable. Who knows? What is certain is that you will be able to do this when you are healthy and in good shape. As always, I send all my best hopes and wishes to you.

Yah, a wrecked rotator cuff is really painful and takes forever to get fixed; the physiotherapist and two of my friends who have suffered from it themselves have told me this. Shot knees seem to be something that are plaguing the baby boomer generation, BJean. It has become an increasingly requested operation up here in Canada and it seems that it is placing some stress on our health care system. There are often longish wait times for this operation depending on where you live and the people who need replacements are in a lot of pain, not to mention kind of handicapped, during the waiting period. Moreover, the new knees only last about 20 years. My mother had her knee replaced when she was in her early 80s. I will never forget the day. She had her operation on 9/11. I was at home worrying about her when my tenant called from work to tell me that a plane had flown into one of the World Trade Towers. Her office was in a flap over the news but they had got it wrong: they thought that it was a light plane and that it had been an accident. I turned on the television that morning, something that I never do. You can well imagine my shock. This is something that we all shared that day. I spent the day worrying about my mother and worrying about America. It was the most surreal day of my life. BJean, you will be pleased to hear that my antique Mum quickly healed from her knee surgery though not without much pain and cursing during her sessions of physio.... A binge of blue cheese, Woodys! What a way to fall off the wagon! I lurv blue cheese! I lurv all strong cheeses. Cheese is what made Green fat! The French boyfriend taught me how to make a lovely blue cheese vinaigrette. *sigh* I have an unopened bar of crumbly Danish blue lurking in my fridge right now. It has been there for awhile now - since before my banding in fact - and I know that this chunk o cheese is calling to me. It would be mighty nice done up with slices of potato and olive oil and then baked.... And Fall is the season of comfort food.... This green girl needs more saline solution. Although I feel no restriction I have been making a point of chew, chew, chewing my food before swallowing. And I have been paying some attention to what I eat and how much I eat. This is a deliberate move on my part. Because I sense no restriction I am so afraid that I could slip back into gorging platesful of food. Wow! This has been a long post from Green, eh!

This is a most interesting post, Carlene. Thanks.

Thanx, kiddo, for the support. It's true that I can eat anything. I want and need more saline!:help: I paid 16000 Cdn bucks for this gadget to help me get normal! It's a good thing that I am scheduled for another fill this Tuesday. I will get to find out how much I weigh at the same time. Then it's off for physio for my torn rotator cuff, the problem that prevents going to the gym and working on my abominable abdominals.

Congratulations on the NSV!

Clinton had oral sex with another consenting adult, one who was not his wife. How did that affect the United States? How should that have affected anyone other than his own family? Indeed it was the Republicans that opened up this to the general public with the help of the taxpayers' money. BuSh chose to enter into a war with a country that did not have strong ties with al Qaeda, and did not have weapons of mass destruction. He chose to do this unilaterally against the advice of the international community. The result has been that the American economy is in ruins, many people are dead or damaged, and the Middle East is now destabilized. Iran, a religious state and one that is openly hostile to the West, was held in check by its natural enemy, Iraq. Now Iraq is in disarray and Iran claims to be developing nuclear weapons of mass destruction. And America's status in the international arena has fallen to an all-time low. How does the damage that this president has done compare to Clinton's lousy blow job?

Sounds nice. Where did you eat and what did ya buy?

There is this issue of the deserving poor and those whom we might consider undeserving. Though some people may be stupid and lazy and stunningly inept at taking control of their own lives, there are also those individuals who have landed in the quagmire of poverty through no fault of their own. I believe that many of these people might be women who have married the wrong men, had children with them, and then find themselves in the position of being single mothers. Their former husbands are deadbeat dads at best, and perhaps abusive mates whom they are seeking to avoid. Sometimes folks end up in poverty because of the death of a mate, or because mental or physical illness strikes down a family member. If this individual is the chief breadwinner, well, the economic life of the family will be even more bleak. Sometimes people end up falling on hard times because the job market for their skills ends up drying up. These poor souls can't find work. They live in the rust belts of America. It is certain that there will be more nice people drifting down into the ranks of the poor over the next few generations. It is cheaper for big businesses to off-load work off shore, you know. It strikes me that all policies and attitudes that have to do with the treatment of the poor should be examined carefully. (I myself am often in favour of workfare programmes even though this pits me against many of my fellow left wing nuts.) I do think that the wealthy should be taxed more than the working class poor or the middle class. Our basic needs are all the same: we all use the same amount of toilet paper, etc. While those who work harder or know how to operate the system to their advantage should defintely be rewarded for their intelligence and for their efforts, I do not see why the discrepancy needs to be as great as it is at this time.

Let's none of us give up. After all this damn gadget cost us all lots of loonies.